Member Spotlight: Lee James

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? The written word influences our world. It records our thoughts, deeds and shapes our future. For me, writing isn’t just an enjoyable past time. It’s an outlet that allows me to share a vision with the world.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? My favorite cure for writer’s block is to work on something different. When you give your imagination a different project, the story takes shape on its own.

What is your favorite time to write? The magic hours are between 9am and 3pm. A day job usually makes this impossible, so the next best time is between 6pm and 9pm.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Just keep writing. Especially the first draft. It’s so easy to get bogged down in the details, but it’s only the first run through. You’re building the foundation, not furnishing the rooms. If you give yourself permission to be honestly flawed and just get that first draft finished, you’ll go so far so much faster.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? This is a century like no other. It’s exciting to be on the front lines of a generation that is seeing/experiencing things like no other generation has before. Politically, socially, culturally-barriers are shifting and changing and as, a writer, I get to share it all through the lens of the mind.

Lee James’s Atonement is out now.